Local plan examination

The Local plan publication version (November 2023) is now undergoing independent examination following its submission to the Secretary of State on 25 April 2024.

Planning inspectors carrying out the examination

The Secretary of State has appointed S Lee BA (Hons) MA MRTPI, L Gibbons BA (Hons) MRTPI and B Clarke BA (Hons) MSc MRTPI as the Inspectors to carry out the examination.

Programme officer

Robert Young has been appointed as Programme Officer to organise and administer the examination, including organisation of the public hearing sessions and dealing with all procedural matters.

The Programme Officer is independent from Bristol City Council and reports to the appointed examination inspector(s).

The Programme Officer can be contacted by e-mailing Robert.Young@bristol.gov.uk.

Examination news

12 December 2024

The Inspectors’ have now published their ‘Matters, Issues and Questions’. This includes Covering letter document IN4 and Appendices IN4a and IN4b, and a draft Hearing Programme IN5.

The Inspectors’ covering letter sets out the purpose of the Matters, Issues and Questions and relevant deadlines. The Inspectors have also updated their original Guidance Note IN1.

All of these documents can be found in the Inspectors’ documents section.

15 November 2024

The council's response to the Inspectors' Supplementary Preliminary Questions (IN3) has been published as EXA036, with associated attachments, in the Examination documents section of the examination library.

15 October 2024

The Inspectors have published some Supplementary Preliminary Questions (IN3) for the Council. The Inspectors are only inviting a response to these questions from the Council at this stage.

The IN3 document has been published in the Inspectors' documents section of the Examination library.

1 October 2024

The documents listed in Appendix 5 of EXA024 (‘BCC response to Inspectors' Document IN2') have been published in the Examination documents section of the examination library.

25 September 2024

The council's response to the Inspectors' Preliminary Questions (IN2) has been published as EXA024, with associated attachments, in the Examination documents section of the examination library. An updated schedule of suggested main modifications has also been published as EXA002.1.

2 August 2024

The documents listed in Appendix 2 of the Inspectors' Preliminary Questions (IN2) have been published in the Examination documents section of the examination library as requested.

18 July 2024

The Inspectors have today published their initial Guidance Note for the Examination (IN1). This will be updated as and when necessary, as the examination proceeds. They have also published their initial set of Preliminary Questions (IN2) for the Council. The answers to these will provide some clarity on a range of issues and hopefully narrow the focus of subsequent stages of the examination. The Inspectors are only inviting a response to these questions from the Council at this stage. These documents have been published in the Inspectors' documents section of the Examination library.

8 July 2024

As referred to in their Submission letter to the Planning Inspectorate, the council has prepared a document setting out its responses to the main issues identified through the consultation (EXA001). It has also prepared a schedule of suggested ‘main modifications' that it considers might be necessary following consultation (EXA002), as well as a schedule of additional modifications (EXA003). The Inspectors have accepted these documents into the examination, and they have been published in the Examinations documents section of the library.

12 June 2024

The Inspectors have asked for an additional document to be added to the ‘Representations received' section of the examination library. This catalogues general comments and representations not made against any specific policy.

Examination library

Use our examination library to access documents related to the preparation, submission and examination of the local plan:

View the list of pdf examination library documents (172 KB) .